{"id":792506,"date":"2026-07-11T01:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792506\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T01:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:13:09","slug":"winthrop-adding-womens-flag-football-club-team-sacramento-state-joining-nirsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792506\/","title":{"rendered":"Winthrop Adding Women’s Flag Football Club Team; Sacramento State Joining NIRSA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winthrop University (SC) will add a women’s flag football club team<\/a> for the 2026-27 academic year. Winthrop named Reggie Cespedes as the program’s first head coach. Winthrop Athletic Director Chuck Rey stated: <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time the Big South Conference has made history as the first conference to sponsor women\u2019s flag football as an NCAA sport and club sport. This clears a pathway and creates a competitive structure for student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of March, the Big South Conference announced it would sponsor women’s flag football<\/a> beginning with the 2027-28 academic year. For the upcoming 2027 spring season, at least five schools will offer a club or varsity program: High Point University<\/a> (NC), Radford University<\/a> (VA), the University of North Carolina at Asheville<\/a>, the University of South Carolina Upstate<\/a>, and Winthrop (SC). USC Upstate will offer a varsity program, while the other four will have club teams.<\/p>\n

In the 2027-28 academic year, Charleston Southern University (SC) will launch a varsity team<\/a>. Radford and UNC Asheville are expected to elevate the club teams to varsity status at the same time. Gardner-Webb University (NC) announced a varsity women’s flag football team<\/a>, but did not provide a timeline for the first season.<\/p>\n

Winthrop is the ninth school in South Carolina to add a club or varsity team. In addition to Charleston Southern, USC Upstate, and Winthrop, Claflin University (NCAA D-II), Clemson University (NCAA D-I Club), Coastal Carolina University (NCAA D-I Club), Erskine College<\/a> (NCAA D-II), Newberry College<\/a> (NCAA D-II), and North Greenville University<\/a> (NCAA D-II) have also announced women’s flag football programs.<\/p>\n

Sacramento State Joining NIRSA<\/p>\n

Sacramento State’s (CA) women’s flag football club team will compete in NIRSA’s club league for the 2026-27 academic year. Sacramento State announced the addition of women’s flag football in June<\/a> and plans to elevate the club team to varsity status in the 2027-28 academic year. The Hornets are the 47th school to join the NIRSA Women’s Flag Football Club League.<\/p>\n

NIRSA announced a partnership with the NFL in May<\/a> and has rapidly added teams over the last two months. By mid-May, three dozen schools had signed up for the league, with the number climbing to 45 by the end of June. Earlier this week, the University of Pittsburgh (PA) became the 46th team to join the league<\/a> for the 2026-27 academic year.<\/p>\n

More than 50 schools are expected to sign up for the club league before the 2026 Fall semester begins. More details regarding the schedules and end-of-season championship set for April 2027 will be provided at a later date. Teams interested in competing in NIRSA’s women’s flag football club league can reach out to National Flag Football Manager\u00a0Nik Sandona\u00a0via email at nik.sandona@nirsa.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winthrop University (SC) will add a women’s flag football club team for the 2026-27 academic year. Winthrop named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-792506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}